Combined drill and expansible breaker mechanism



April 7, 1953 J. F. JOY I 2,634,113 COMBINED DRILL Am'a EXPANSIBLEBREAKER MECHANISM OriginaI Filed Sept. 4, 1946 1520677129071:Jsepkli'cfo y.

awarmy 1 0w in mfit'e m Patented Apr. 7, 1953 COMBINED DRILL ANDEXPANSIBLE BREAKER MECHANISM Joseph F. Joy, Pittsburgh, Pa., assignor toJoy Manufacturing Company, Pittsburgh, Pa., a corporation ofPennsylvania Original application September 4, 1946, Serial No. 694,779.Divided and this application March 10, 1948, Serial No. 14,057

4 Claims. (Cl. 262-42) coal seam or mineral vein is drilled by a powerdrill to provide a series of appropriately located blast holes forreceiving explosive charges, and, after tamping, the explosive chargesare fired to dislodge the adjacent mass or body of coal or other mineralfrom the solid. The present invention contemplates improvements overprevious mining practice in that the use of explosives and the attendantobjections and dangers are avoided. In accordance with the presentinvention the coal or other mineral is drilled and dislodged from thecoal seam or mineral vein by a mechanism embodying means for drillingthe working face of the seam or vein and for dislodging the coal orother mineral by hydraulic pressure, thereby eliminating the necessityof blasting with explosives. The drill and hydraulic breaker of thepresent invention are combined in a single unit, and the breaker followsthe drill into the bore hole as drilling progresses, and, when the borehole is completed, the breaker is expanded to dislodge the coal or othermineral, thereby avoiding the need of separate pieces of specialequipment, and greatly decreasing the time consumed in the drilling anddislodging operations.

An object of the present invention is to provide an improved dislodgingmechanism for drilling and dislodging coal or other minerals from a minevein. A further object is to provide an improved drilling and breakingdown mechanism for drilling the coal or other mineral, and thereafter,

without removing the drill from the bore hole, applying a powerfulbreaking down pressure to the adjacent mass or body of coal or othermineral to dislodge the latter. from the solid. A still further objectis to provide an improved drilling and breaking down mechanism embodyinga rotary drill and an expansible breaker device surrrounding the drillspindle rearwardly of the drill head and having conducting means for theexpanding power medium extending from the breaker device outwardly alongthe drill spindle to a point extraneous of the bore hole.

Still another object is to provide improved con- Qveying meansassociated in a novel manner with the drill head and breaker device forconveying the cuttings created by the drill head during drillingoutwardly through the breaker device along the drill spindle to asuitable point of discharge outside of the working face. A furtherobject is to provide an improved drill and breaker device embodying adrill head rotated by a drill spindle which extends axially through atube, and an elongated expansible breaker bag surrounding the tuberearwardly of the drill head. Still another object is to provide a screwconveyor arranged within the tube and extending axially through thebreaker bag for conveying the cuttings from the drill head outwardly ofthe bore hole. A still further object is to provide an improved drillingand dislodging mechanism having a noval combination and arrangement ofparts. These and other objects and advantagesof the invention will,however, hereinafter more fully appear.

This application is a division of my copending application, Serial No.694,779, filed September 4,

' 1946, now matured intoPatent No. 2,581,667,

granted January 8, 1952.

In the accompanying drawing there is shown for purposes of illustrationone form which the invention may assume in practice.

In this drawing:

7 Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of a material dislodging mechanismconstructed in accordance with a preferred illustrative embodiment ofthe invention.

Fig. 2 is a View in central longitudinal section through the dislodgingmechanism shown in Fig. l, and illustrating details of construction.

Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken on line 3-3 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a diagrammatic side view showing the dislodging mechanism inoperating position in a mine.

Fig. 5 is a diagrammatic view similar to Fig. 4, showing the dislodgingmechanism in expanded material dislodging position, with the adjacentmass of material broken down.

In this illustrative embodiment of the invention, as shown in thedrawing, the combined drilling and dislodging mechanism is generallydesignated 8, and is adapted to be mounted and operated in the mannerfully disclosed in my copending application above referred to. Evidentlythe mechanism may be mounted and operated in various other manners.

The drilling and dislodging mechanism includes a rotary drill head 2, anexpansible breaker device 3 and conveying means 1. A motor driven 3shaft Or drill spindle 5 extends longitudinally centrally within anon-rotatable outer tube or tubular housing 65. This tubular housing isherein preferably made up of aligned tubular sections 1 and 8, and acollar 9 secured as by welding to the rear end of the front section isthreadedly connected at It to the front end of the rear section forrigidly uniting the sections. The rotary drill head 2 is attached to thefront end of the drill spindle 5 and includes a drill bit H havingsuitable cutting teeth I2. The drill bit, in this instance, has acentral body portion 13 threadedly secured to a reduced front projectionis of the shaft 5. The drill spindle or shaft 5 has spiral conveyorvanes or flights i5 secured thereto as by welding to provide a screwconveyor for conveying the cuttings created by the drill bit duringdrilling rearwardly through the tube 5 to discharge at a suitable pointoutside of the face of the coal seam or mineral vein. Surrounding thefront tube section 1 of the tubular housing is a compactly arranged,expansible tubular breaker in the form of an elongated bag it ofreinforced rubber or rubberlike material secured at its ends to the tubesection 3 as by means of inner and outer collars i! and it, the formersecured as by welding to the ends of the front tube section, and thelatter surrounding and embedded at as in the ends of the rubber bag.Thus fluid-tight joints are provided between the rubber bag and the tube6 at the ends of the bag. Secured as by threading at 25 on the forwardend. of the front tube section is a collar 2! herein arranged betweenthe front end of the bag and the rear side of the drill bit as shown inFig. 2. Secured at 22 as by threads to the front end of the front tubesection in advance of the collar 2'! is a bell-mouthed member 23 whichsubstantially fits the bore hole and serves to direct the cuttingscreated by the drill bit during drilling into the tubular housing towardthe receiving end of the screw conveyor. This bell-mouthed memher alsoserves to impede the passage of cuttings outwardly toward the breakerbag, thereby retiming the possibility of the latter becoming boundwithin the bore hole. The drill bit is of such size as to form a borehole of a diameter suilicient to receive the bell-mouthed member 23 andthe expansible breaker as the drill bit forms a bore hole in thematerial to be broken. is conduit 2 3 is embedded at 25 within thebreaker bag It in communication with the interior thereof, and leadsrearwardly through an opening 26 in the collar 9 along the exterior ofthe tube E to a suitable source of liquid under pressure, so that therubber bag may be expanded to effect its breaking down or dislodgingfunction when desired.

The general mode of operation of the improved material dislodgingmechanism is as follows. It will be understood that prior to thedrilling and dislodging operations the face of the coal seam or mineralvein is cut by a kerf cutting machine, and, in Fig. 4, the kerf or slotcut by the cutting machine is designated 2?. It is possible, however,

under certain conditions "such as during the dislodging of the open endsof pillars to dislodge the coal or other mineral without previouscutting by a kerf cutting machine. The drilling and breaker mechanism issuitably supported with respect to the working face, and the drill andconveyor driving shaft 5 is rapidly rotated, in the manners disclosed inthe copending application above referred to. As the drill bit H israpidly'rbtated, it is advanced in a suitable manner toward the workingface to form a bore hole 28 at the desired location in the coal or othermineral and the conveyor 15 conveys the cuttings created by the drillbit rearwardly through the tube 6 to a suitable point of dischargeoutside of the bore hole. As drilling progresses, the expansible breakerdevice enters the bore hole, and upon completion of the bore hole, whenthe breaker device has assumed the position shown in Fig. 4 and whilethe drill remains in the bore hole, liquid under pressure may beadmitted through the conduit 24 to the interior of the breaker bag is,thereby to apply a powerful dislodging force to the adjacent mass orbody of coal or other mineral to dislodge the latter, in the mannershown in Fig. 5. After the coal is dislodged, the drill and breakermechanism may be withdrawn from the coal or other mineral. Duringexpansion of the breaker bag It, its walls are placed under sufiicienttension, so that when the expanding liquid is discharged from the bagthrough the conduit 2% the bag will contract to its original normalretracted position as shown in Fig. 2.

As a result of this invention, an improved material dislodging mechanismis provided whereby a bore hole may be drilled in a coal seam or minevein, and thereafter the adjacent mass or body of coal or other mineralmay be dislodged from the solid without the use of explosives. Byassociating the breaker device with the drill, the breaker device mayenter the bore hole formed by the drill, and on completion of thedrilling operation, and without removing the drill from the bore hole,the breaker device may be expanded to dislodge the coal or other mineralin an extremely expeditious manner. By arranging the conveyor centrallywithin the breaker device, the cuttings created by the drill bit duringdrilling are eifectively removed from the bore hole in advance of thebreaker device, so that binding of the latter during advance thereofwithin the bore hole is substantially prevented. The dislodgingmechanism is not only efiicient in operation but is also extremelycompact and relatively simple and rugged in design. Other uses andadvantages of the invention will be clearly apparent to those skilled inthe art.

While there is in this application specifically described one form whichthe invention may as-- some in practice, it -will be understood thatthis form of the same is shown for purposes of illustration, and thatthe invention may be modified and embodied in various other formswithout departing from its spirit or the scope of the appended claims.

What I claim as new and desire to :secure by Letters Patent is:

l. A combined drill and breaker mechanism comprising, in combination, arotary drill bit for forming a hole in the material to be broken, anelongated non rot'atable tubular suppert, rotation transmission meansextending axially through and enclosed with-in said "support for re--tating said drill bit, an elongated expansible breaker devicesurrounding said tubular support and when collapsed being of smallerexternal diameter than the diameter of said drill bit whereby saidbreaker device ma enter the hole formed by the bit as drillingprogresses, means for mounting said breaker device on said support forjaxi'al movement therewith with said device held in sealedrelatio'n'with respect to. said support to prevent fluid leakage, andwith the forwl'ar'd ends of said breaker devioefand'its mounting me'anslobated 'clbse to said drill bit, and fluid conducting means extendinglongitudinally of said support and communicating with the interior ofsaid breaker device to supply fluid under pressure to said breakerdevice between the latter and said support for expanding said device toapply a powerful breaking pressure to the material surrounding the holeto effect breaking down of the material.

2. A combined drill and breaker mechanism as set forth in claim 1wherein conveyor means is rotatable with said rotation transmittingmeans and enclosed in and movable with said transmitting means relativeto said tubular support for receiving the cuttings created by said drillbit during the drilling operation and for conveying the cuttingsrearwardly through said tubular support from the drill hole, and abell-mouthed deflector is secured to the front end of said tubularsupport in close adjacency to said drill bit for directing the cuttingsinto said tubular support whereby said conveying means may receive thecuttings and move them rearwardly.

3. A combined drill and breaker mechanism as set forth in claim 2wherein said rotation transmitting means is in the form of a drive shaftand said conveying means comprises a spiral conveyor vane secured tosaid shaft, said shaft projecting axially in advance of the front end ofsaid tubular support and extending within said bell- REFERENCES CITEDThe following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS,

Number Name Date 1,191,992 Peters July 25, 1916 1,273,869 Joy July 30,1918 1,519,147 Levin Dec. 16, 1924 1,630,470 Clifford May 31, 19272,151,328 Noble Mar. 21, 1939 2,233,205 Frantz Feb. 25, 1941 2,253,941Pray Aug. 26, 1941 2,438,637 Jansen Mar. 30, 1948 FOREIGN PATENTS NumberCountry Date 129,066 Great Britain July 2, 1919 504 776 France Apr. 22.1920 mouthed deflector and said bit having a central 3o portion attachedto said projecting end of said shaft.

